It's Show Time!

You Can Run Just About Anything With that Old Iron, the Only Limitation is Your Imagination

Billy Eller

| June/July 2002

Billy decided to build both of these trailers the night of Sept. 11, 2001. His motivation is obvious.

I enjoyed the SmokStak column in the December 2001 issue of
Gas Engine Magazine where readers discussed the different
ways they employ their engines. I have only been involved with
antique engines for one year, and I knew a working engine would get
more attention than an engine just running, so I put together a
working engine doing several things. I have two different trailer
setups. On one, I have a 2 HP hit-and-miss engine pulling a
4-gallon Dazey butter churn, a pair of Maytag engines (one
single-cylinder and one two-cylinder engine) complete with 8-foot
exhaust pipes.

The other is a bit more involved, but everything is labeled for
shows, with explanations of what each piece was designed to do.

The main attraction on the trailer at right is Billy's 1915
Hercules Model E pulling a 4-gallon Dazey butter churn. The trailer
also features a single-cylinder Maytag Model 92 and a two-cylinder
Maytag Model 72. Billy has a great time with these trailers, and he
says they draw a lot of attention at shows.

Billy standing alongside his other trailer. The centerpiece of
this trailer is Billy's 1925 Hercules-built 2 HP Jaeger,
mounted on a railroad baggage cart dating from 1941. The Jaeger
powers, among other things, a woman churning, two men sawing with a
crosscut saw and an air compressor for blowing up balloons for
kids. Exhaust from the engine pushes a tin can seven feet up a pole
where it rings a bell, while the exhaust from one of the Maytag
engines 'fires' 74 shots a minute from the rifle.